20 Jun Cobb Middle School’s Performance of Brundibar

This is a short clip from Cobb Middle School’s performance on June 7, 2014 of Brundibar, a children’s opera that was performed 55 times in the Terezin concentration camp.  This was the second part of a ClassNotes residency about music and the Holocaust in Tallahassee, Florida.  ClassNotes’ violinist Sharon Roffman led the orchestra of mostly students from Leon High School; the chorus was comprised of middle and elementary school students.  One of the original cast members, Ela Stein Weissberger, now 78 (she played the cat,) came to talk to the students about her experiences in Terezin performing the opera.  As Ela herself said, she thought Brundibar would die in the gas chambers.  The fact that it still has life is an homage to the composer Hans Krasa and the other musicians who didn’t survive, and a remarkable testament of the power and resilience of the human spirit.